Taxonomy plays an important role in understanding the origin, evolution, and ecological functionality of biodiversity. There are large number of unknown species yet to be described by taxonomists, which together with their ecosystem services cannot be effectively protected prior to description. Despite this, taxonomy has been increasingly underrated insufficient funds and permanent positions to retain young talents. Further, the impact factor-driven evaluation systems in China exacerbate this downward trend, so alternative evaluation metrics are urgently necessary. When the current generation of outstanding taxonomists retires, there will be too few remaining taxonomists left to train the next generation. In light of these challenges, all co-authors worked together on this paper to analyze the current situation of taxonomy and put out a joint call for immediate actions to advance taxonomy in China.

Five new genera are reported, namely Rathalos Lin & Li, gen. nov., of Anyphaenidae Simon, 1892, with Anyphaena xiushanensis Song & Zhu, 1991 (♂♀, China: Hubei, Sichuan) as the type species, Funny Lin & Li, gen. nov., of Dictynidae O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1871, with Funny valentine Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Sichuan) as the type species, Pararana Lin & Li, gen. nov., of Leptonetidae Simon, 1890, with Pararana gaofani Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, China: Jiangsu) as the type species, and Burmalema Zhao & Li, gen. nov. and Milema Zhao & Li, gen. nov. of Telemidae Fage, 1913, with Burmalema shan Zhao & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Myanmar) and Milema nuichua Zhao & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam) as the type species. Another twenty-two new species are reported in the current paper, including Araneidae Clerck, 1757: Ordgarius bo Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, China: Yunnan), O. liyuanba Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, China: Hainan) and Paraplectana magnaculata Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, China: Hunan); Ctenidae Keyserling, 1877: Amauropelma gui Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, China: Guangxi); Filistatidae Simon, 1864: Pholcoides erebus Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, China: Tibet); Gnaphosidae Banks, 1892: Cryptodrassus beijing Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Beijing); Halonoproctidae Pocock, 1901: Latouchia yuanjingae Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Hainan); Liocranidae Simon, 1897: Paratus meiyingae Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, China: Yunnan) and P. nanling Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Guangdong); Ochyroceratidae Fage, 1912: Speocera tongyaoi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Guangdong) and S. wangi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, China: Hainan); Oxyopidae Thorell, 1869: Hamataliwa wangi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Fujian); Salticidae Blackwall, 1841: Hyllus shanhonghani Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Jiangxi); Selenopidae Simon, 1897: Siamspinops banna Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Yunnan); Telemidae Fage, 1913: Mekonglema chiangmai Zhao & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Thailand), Milema lorkor Zhao & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Thailand) and M. sai Zhao & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Thailand); Tetrablemmidae O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1873: Singaporemma shenzhen Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Guangdong); Tetragnathidae Menge, 1866: Dolichognatha yue Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Guangdong); Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833: Spheropistha pingshan Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Guangdong); Theridiosomatidae Simon, 1881: Wendilgarda housaiyuae Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Yunnan) and Titanoecidae Lehtinen, 1967: Pandava banna Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Yunnan). Two new combinations in the family Anyphaenidae are proposed: Rathalos treecko (Lin & Li, 2021), comb. nov., R. xiushanensis (Song & Zhu, 1991), comb. nov., both transferred from Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833.

A new newt species, Tylototriton daloushanensis Zhou, Xiao & Luo, sp. nov., is described from Guizhou, China, based on phylogenetic and morphological analyses. Phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial 16S and ND2 genes show that the new species is an independent lineage closely related to T. maolanensis, T. broadoridgus, T. dabienicus, T. anhuiensis, and T. wenxianensis. Morphologically, the new species is distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following morphological characters: (1) large body size (SVL 64.7–83.6 mm in male and 70.5–100.3 mm in female); (2) head longer than wide, prominent bony ridges present; (3) snout rounded in dorsal view; (4) tail length less than snout-vent length in both males and females; (5) dark black body coloration, except for bright orange cranial region, palms and soles, vent region, and ventral ridge of tail; (6) relative length of toes III > IV > II > I > V; (7) fingertips reaching to between the eyes and nostrils when the forelimbs are stretched forward; (8) distal tip of the limbs greatly overlapping when the fore and hind limbs are pressed along the trunk; (9) presence of gular fold; (10) vertebral ridge slightly segmented, slightly flattened rib nodules, indistinct interspaces between rib nodules; and (11) lacking orange color markings on posterior parotoids and rib nodules. The found of the new species suggests that the species diversity of the genus Tylototriton may be underestimated.

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Twenty new species of extinct spiders belonging to 11 genera in five families from Late Cretaceous Kachin amber are reported. One new genus, Triangulum Jiang & Li, gen. nov., of the family Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833 was established with T. thutai Jiang & Li, sp. nov. as the type species. The remaining 19 new species are: Retrooecobius lwini Jiang & Li, sp. nov., Zamilia arkari Jiang & Li, sp. nov., Z. sheini Jiang & Li, sp. nov., Z. shwayi Jiang & Li, sp. nov. from Oecobiidae Blackwall, 1862; Furcembolus inzaliae Jiang & Li, sp. nov. from Pacullidae Simon, 1894; Priscaleclercera chimei Jiang & Li, sp. nov., P. foshou Jiang & Li, sp. nov., P. hlaingi Jiang & Li, sp. nov., P. kani Jiang & Li, sp. nov., P. kyawae Jiang & Li, sp. nov., P. thanae Jiang & Li, sp. nov., P. thaungi Jiang & Li, sp. nov. from Psilodercidae Machado, 1951; Bicornoculus aungi Jiang & Li, sp. nov., B. wunnai Jiang & Li, sp. nov., B. yarzari Jiang & Li, sp. nov., Cymbioblemma ohnmari Jiang & Li, sp. nov., Palpalpaculla phyui Jiang & Li, sp. nov. from Tetrablemmidae O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1873; Burmatheridon cetani Jiang & Li, sp. nov., Cretotheridion champoi Jiang & Li, sp. nov., from Theridiidae. All species are described based on males. All types are deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IZCAS) in Beijing, China.

A new species group of the genus Lilioceris Reitter, 1913 is proposed and keyed as neptis group, characterized by adults with mesoventral process widened, tuberculate, and horizontally connected with mesoventrite. It includes six species: Lilioceris balyi Ch?j?, 1962, L. cantonensis Heinze, 1943 stat. rev., L. fouana Pic, 1932, L. neptis (Weise, 1922), L. subpolita (Motschulsky, 1861) and L. vietnamica Medvedev, 1985. Among them, Lilioceris cantonensis Heinze, 1943 is resurrected as a valid species from synonyms of L. neptis (Weise, 1922); L. fouana Pic, 1932 is transferred from the subgenus Chujoita Monrós, 1959 to the subgenus Lilioceris Reitter, 1913; L. vietnamica Medvedev, 1985 is firstly recorded in China; some misidentifications of former literatures for L. neptis are provided. Redescriptions (if necessary), habitus photographs, geographic distributions, host plants and habitats (if known) are provided for these species.

Three new genera of spiders are described: Jishiyu Lin & Li, gen. nov., of Agelenidae C. L. Koch, 1837, with J. songjiang Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, China: Yunnan) as the type species, Marusik Lin & Li, gen. nov., of Gnaphosidae Banks, 1892, with M. yurii Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, Vietnam) as the type species and Xiaoliguang Lin & Li, gen. nov., of Phrurolithidae Banks, 1892, with X. huarong Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam) as the type species. Thirty-five new species are described in 12 families: Corinnidae Karsch, 1880: Spinirta qishuoi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, China: Guangxi); Hahniidae Bertkau, 1878: Cicurina miniae Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, Vietnam); Halonoproctidae Pocock, 1901: Latouchia wenruni Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Hainan); Liocranidae Simon, 1897: Oedignatha wuyong Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam) and Sphingius gongsunsheng Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, Vietnam); Nemesiidae Simon, 1889: Sinopesa guansheng Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, China: Yunnan); Phrurolithidae Banks, 1892: Edelithus huyanzhuo Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), E. linchong Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), E. qinming Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), Grandilithus linglingae Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), G. yangzhi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, Vietnam), Lingulatus chaijin Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, Vietnam), L. dongping Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), L. liying Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), L. longfeiae Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), L. luzhishen Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), L. zhangqing Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), L. zhutong Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), Otacilia liuxinyei Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), O. wusong Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, Vietnam) and O. xuning Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, Vietnam); Pimoidae Wunderlich, 1986: Pimoa zeluni Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, China: Hebei); Salticidae Blackwall, 1841: Epeus covid Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Yunnan); Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833: Phoroncidia minlangi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♀, China: Fujian); Thomisidae Sundevall, 1833: Borboropactus nanda Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Yunnan), Cozyptila haocongi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), Lysiteles huyilinae Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), Massuria daizong Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, China: Yunnan) and Zametopina wanliae Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, Vietnam); Trachelidae Simon, 1897: Utivarachna yumaoi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂, Vietnam); Zodariidae Thorell, 1881: Asceua shuangreni Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), Cydrela likui Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), Mallinella lisongi Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam), M. pingzhoui Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam) and M. sena Lin & Li, sp. nov. (♂♀, Vietnam). One genus name and one species name are detected as homonyms and thereby replacement names for the preoccupied names are proposed, in accordance with Article 60 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999), i.e., Xilithus Liu & Li, nom. nov., ex Acrolithus Liu & Li, 2022 (preoccupied nomen); Araneus xiang Mi & Li, nom. nov., ex Araneus arcuatus Mi & Li, 2022 (preoccupied nomen). Therefore, all 16 species of Acrolithus Liu & Li, 2022 are transferred to Xilithus Liu & Li, nom. nov.

The researches on taxonomy and phylogeny of the subphylum Crustacea in China, mainly the marine species, are reviewed in the present paper. The researches involved taxonomy, morphology, fauna and zoogeography, phylogeny and systematics. The mentioned groups almost cover all groups of the Crustacea which have been studied by Chinese scholars. This review is of great significance to summarize the achievements in the field of taxonomy and phylogeny on marine crustaceans in China.

The paper deals with a species new to science, Stygothrombium garzensis Li & Guo, sp. nov., collected from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, P.R. China, which represents a newly recorded superfamily Stygothrombioidea Mullen & Vercammen-Grandjean, 1980 to Chinese fauna. The new species is described and illustrated in detail, especially the quantity and characteristic of idiosomal glandularia, with the diagnosis of infracapitulum base approximately 3.5 times as long as rostrum, the second pair of posterior setae on prodorsal plate about half length of posterior portion of prodorsal plate and the second ventroglandularia between the third acetabula and inner posterior angle of the fourth coxae, located at one-third of interval near the third acetabula approximately.

Seven species of the spider family Hersiliidae Thorell, 1869 are included in this study. Four new species from two genera are described: Hersilia aoqin sp. nov. (♂♀), H. long sp. nov. (♀), H. sagada sp. nov. (♂♀), and Murricia caishen sp. nov. (♀). The genus Murricia, 1882 and two species, H. lelabah Rheims & Brescovit, 2004 and H. martensi Baehr & Baehr, 1993, are reported from China for the first time. H. yunnanensis Wang, Song & Qiu, 1993, syn. nov. is regarded as a junior synonym of H. sumatrana (Thorell, 1890).

Epipaschiinae, a subfamily of Pyralidae, has characteristic features distinct from other groups of Pyralidae, such as the thick scales and labial palpi usually upturned. This subfamily is a relative smaller group in Pyralidae, and currently reports over 700 species worldwide (Solis, 1992, 1994; Nuss et al., 2021). Solis (1992) listed 287 known epipaschiine species all over the world, including 273 species from Old World. In China, the first checklist of Epipaschiinae was systematically summarized by Lu and Guan (1953), including 8 genera and 53 species. Recently, the subfamily of China was revised, and tens of species from several genera were reported, such as Lista, Coenodomus, Epilepia, Teliphasa, Termioptycha (Liu et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2017a, b; Rong et al., 2017a, b). These studies contributed about 30 additional species from China besides Lu and Guan (1953). Here, we present a list of all descripted species of Epipaschiinae in China, including 17 genera and 85 species, with their geographical distribution. Among them, Orthaga aenescens is firstly recorded in China. The genera and species are alphabetically listed here.

The genus Alloxiphia Wei, 2002 was redescribed based on new materials. Two species from China were described as new to science, namely A. tianmua Wei, sp. nov. and A. qinlingia Wei, sp. nov. A key to known species of the genus is provided. The differences among Alloxiphia, Palpixiphia Maa, 1949 and Hyperxiphia Maa, 1949 were also briefly discussed.

Phylogenomics is a new field that infers evolutionary relationships of taxa at the genome-scale level. The increment of molecular data may raise the potential bias as the limiting factor in phylogenomics. It is particularly important to explore these factors in phylogenomic analyses by simple, convenient, time-saving and (relatively) robust means. Here, we construct a set of custom scripts for USCO (universal single-copy orthologs) loci extraction, multiple sequence alignment, trimming poorly aligned regions, loci filtering and creating a concatenation matrix, prior to reconstructing the phylogenetic trees, to simplify analytical pipelines and improve the accuracy of tree estimation. These scripts employed a series of computationally efficient bioinformatic tools, and were used with a universal ‘BASH’ shell or visual interface by Windows-like ‘drag and drop’ operations in LINUX systems. Most steps in these scripts are parallelized to accelerate analyses. These new custom scripts provide a convenient analytical solution for phylogenomics data preparation, data quality control, and detection of potential analytical errors. Details and scripts usage are provided at https://github.com/xtmtd/ Phylogenomics/tree/main/scripts. The virtual mirror file (.vmdk) integrates the operating system and required environment. All tools and scripts can be downloaded from https://dx.doi.org/ 10.6084/m9.figshare.21283026. Besides, the video introduction and “walk-through” for each script are provided at https://space.bilibili.com/319699648/channel/seriesdetail?sid=2682055.

A species of the family Xyloryctidae, Neospastis camellia S. Wang, nom. nov., is described as a replacement name of N. simaona nom. nud., with the descriptions of its larva and pupa and the biological notes. The pest is feeding on the leaves of tea plant Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze (Theaceae).

This paper describes two new genera and two new species, Megacnipsomorpha gen nov., Parapachymorpha granulata sp. nov., Parapachymorpha parvicorne sp. nov., and Spinoparapachymorpha gen nov., from Medaurini of China.

The weevils Eucryptorrhynchus brandti (Harold) and E. scrobiculatus (Motschulsky) are two pests of the tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima. They usually co-occur on their host tree. However, these two species have a niche separation with different eggs-laying locations and larvae-feeding parts on the tree. Here, we characterized the distribution of microsatellites in the genome and developed genome-wide microsatellite markers shared between these two weevils. A total of 12,524 and 11,030 potential microsatellites were identified for E. brandti and E. scrobiculatus, respectively. Microsatellites with AT, TA, AC, TG, CA repeat motifs were most common for both species. We designed primers universal for two weevils and developed 14 loci with high amplification efficacy and polymorphism. We validated these microsatellite markers in three populations of each species. In E. brandti, the observed and expected heterozygosity for the genotyped loci ranged from 0.17–0.24 and 0.44–0.54; in E. scrobiculatus, the above values ranged from 0.06–0.18 and 0.18–0.27. Based on the developed microsatellite markers, we found that populations of both weevils have a clear pattern of genetic differentiation. Our study provides valuable genetic markers for ecological, genetic, and evolutionary study of these two weevils.

Two previously unknown species of hydromedusae, i.e. Bougainvillia leizhouensis Xu, Guo & Wang, sp. nov. and Octocannoides tetranema Xu, Guo & Wang, sp. nov. were found in plankton samples collected during oceanographic cruises along the Leizhou Bay of the northern South China Sea. All new species are described and illustrated here. Identification keys to the known species of genera Bougainvillia and Octocannoides, and the genera of family Octocannoididae are provided, respectively. In addition, the genus name Pedunculus Xu, Huang & Guo, 2019 is preoccupied, and Stylogastria Xu, Huang & Guo, nom. nov. is proposed to replace it. All type specimens are deposited in the College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University.

A new species of the antlion subfamily Dendroleontinae, namely Layahima weiweii sp. nov., is described. The new species appears to be closely related to L. wuzhishana (Yang, 2002), which is herein re-described in detail. These two closely related species are compared based on morphological and molecular data.

Thirteen species of Gracillariidae, belonging to three subfamilies, Acrocercopinae, Gracillariinae and Ornixolinae, are reviewed from Shandong, China. Three species are recorded from China for the first time: Calybites securinella (Ermolaev, 1986), Eteoryctis picrasmae Kumata & Kuroko, 1988, and Spulerina parthenocissi Kumata & Kuroko, 1988. All species are described in detail except Liocrobyla indigofera Liu, Wang & Wang, 2018, with the illustrations of adults, male and female genitalia.

The genus Falsomesosella Pic, 1925 currently includes two subgenera, with 36 species / subspecies described in the nominate subgenus (Tavakilian & Chevillotte, 2021). Among them, 10 species were recorded from China (Lin & Tavakilian, 2019). Recently, Lazarev (2021) described the 37th species from Shaanxi Province of China. However, it was based on four specimens of Falsomesosella truncatipennis Pic, 1944, herein we propose the new synonym.

Three new species of Tenthredo Linnaeus, 1758 from Jiangxi and Zhejiang Provinces, China are described, namely, T. carinacestanella sp. nov., T. pseudoxanthopleurita sp. nov. and T. yudai sp. nov., belonging to T. cestanella group, T. issiki group, and T. mongolica group, respectively.

Dinocarsiella brevicula sp. nov. is described from Tibet, China. Photomicrographs are provided to illustrate morphological characters of the species. The specimens including the holotype were deposited in Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (IZCAS).

The genus and species, Bolothrips bicolor (Heeger, 1852), are recorded from China for the first time, with both sexes found in Shaanxi Province. A generic diagnosis, morphological description, illustrations and photographs are provided. COI sequence of the newly recorded species is also given.

A new genus and two new species of thelastomatoid nematodes are reported here, which were collected from Ceracupes fronticornis (Westwood, 1842) from Yunnan Province, China. Hystrignathus baihualingensis sp. nov. differs from its closely related species by having a very short stoma, the length of tail and egg size, and the arrangement of the cervical spines. Paralepidonema baoshanensis gen. & sp. nov. differs from its similar genera by having a disk-like first cephalic annule, sub-cylindrical procorpus, 20 elements in the first row of spines, and a didelphic-amphidelphic reproductive system.

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Two new species of Eumorphobotys Munroe & Mutuura, 1969, E. longicalcaratus Chen & Zhang, sp. nov. and E. uniprotrusus Chen & Zhang, sp. nov., are described, with their illustrations of adults and genitalia. A key to species of Eumorphobotys is provided.

A new fossil species of Monotomidae, Cretakarenni shaoi Li & Cai, sp. nov., is reported from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. The new species is attributed to the extinct genus Cretakarenni Peris & Delclòs, 2015 primarily based on the paired setose projections on head, apparently 1-segmented antennal club, and transverse procoxal cavities with exposed trochantins. It differs from the previously reported C. birmanicus Peris & Delclòs from the same deposit in the more narrowly separated projections (cephalic horns) on vertex and the absence of elytral absutural lines. Our discovery of a new monotomid species from the mid-Cretaceous amber highlights the palaeodiversity and morphological disparity of the family in the late Mesozoic.

Three new species, Phyllocoptes angustais sp. nov. infesting Sibiraea angustata (Rehd.) Hand.-Mazz. (Rosaceae), Aculops brevifolis sp. nov. infesting Caragana brevifolia Kom. (Leguminosae), and Diptacus acutifolius sp. nov. infesting Cotoneaster acutifolius Turcz. (Rosaceae), are described and illustrated. All mites are collected from Maixiu National Forest Park, Zeku County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China and are vagrant on the undersurfaces of leaves of their host plants.

Six Siobla species are revised, including the following new synonymies: S. rufoscapa Wei, 2002, syn. nov., synonymized by S. villosa Malaise, 1931; S. tuberculatana Wei, 2002, syn. nov., synonymized by S. malaisei Mallach, 1933 and Encarsioneura similis Mocsáry, 1909, syn. nov., synonymized by S. ruficornis (Gimmerthal, 1834). S. frigida Mocsáry, 1909, as the synonym of S. sturmii (Klug, 1817) was recovered; Siobla plesia stat. nov. is regarded to be a valid species, rather than a subspecies of S. sturmii. Siobla iridipennis Malaise, 1934 is redescribed based on the holotype, and a new species group, Siobla iridipennis group, is proposed. The characters of the group are briefly discussed. All illustrations of type specimens mentioned in this paper are provided. In addition, the lectotypes of Encarsioneura similis Mocsáry, 1909, Encarsioneura frigida Mocsáry, 1909, and Siobla sturmii plesia Malaise, 1945 are designated here.

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A new species of Halonoproctid spider Conothele chinnarensis sp. nov. is described from Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Western Ghats of Kerala, India based on morphological characters. The new species C.chinnarensis sp. nov. resembles C. varvarti, C. birmanica and C. vali but can be distinguished from C. varvarti by the long stalk of the apical lobe which is not distally twisted, whereas in C. varvarti, the stalk is twisted distally and the burrow in C. chinnarensis sp. nov. is straight without any other chamber, while in C. varvarti, on the inner end of the burrow a second D-shaped hinged trapdoor exists, which opens into another chamber (Siliwal et al., 2009); it differs from C.birmanica by the presence of curved spines on tibiae I-II which are absent in C. birmanica.

Four species of the ant genus Probolomyrmex in the subfamily Proceratiinae are recognized in China, namely P. dammermani, P. longiscapus, P. longinodus and P. vieti. Two species, P. dammermani and P. vieti are recorded in China for the first time. A key to the known Chinse species of the genus based on worker caste is presented.

This paper explores the integrative utilization of morphology and geometric morphometrics in order to deal with sibling species in Torrenticolidae. The results suggest: (1) Features of anterior margins of coxae, dorsoglandularia 1–4 and infracapitulum can be utilized in landmark-based geometric morphometric approach; (2) A new species, Torrenticola brevisuturae Gu & Guo, sp. nov., is reported in this paper.

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Callosobruchus maculatus (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: Bruchinae) is a destructive agricultural pest that is harmful to beans worldwide and an important quarantine pest in China. It was divided into two phenotypes based on polyphenism: normal and flight forms. In this study, we first compared the morphological structures of the compound eyes of the two forms. According to the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), microcomputed tomography (micro-CT), and computer three-dimensional reconstruction, there are no differences in the structures of the compound eyes between the normal and flight forms except for the number of ommatidia. From the internal structure, the compound eyes have a biconvex cornea with open rhabdom and acone eye, crystalline cone directly connected with rhabdom, and no clear zone. It is a kind of apposition eye. Ommatidia facets range in shape from quadrilateral to hexagonal and some irregular shapes. On electroretinograms (ERGs), the normal and flight forms showed different spectral sensitivities: the normal form had the strongest response to ultraviolet light, whereas the flight form had the strongest response to white light. Behavioral assays revealed that the normal and flight forms showed completely opposite phototaxis behaviors; the flight form exhibited positive phototaxis, whereas the normal form exhibited negative phototaxis. This study not only enriches our knowledge on coleopteran compound eyes but also provides a foundation for in-depth research on the photoreceptor mechanisms of compound eyes, which may be useful in pest control management.

The diversity of the brown frog genus Rana may be underestimated as the high similarity of morphological characters. In this study, a new species of Rana from Guizhou Province, China is described, namely Rana zhijinensis Luo, Xiao & Zhou, sp. nov. Molecular phylogenetic analyses clustered the new species into the R. japonica group of Rana and significant morphological characters can be distinguished from the 11 recognized species of the R. japonica group. This description increases the number of recognized Rana to 57 species and the R. japonica group to 12 species, and increases our knowledge of the diversity of the genus Rana.